Exploring Immunotherapy in Colorectal Cancer
A special issue of Cancers (ISSN 2072-6694). This special issue belongs to the section "Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 October 2025 | Viewed by 56
Special Issue Editors
Interests: colorectal cancer; gastrointestinal tumors; translational research; immunotherapy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: hepatobiliary tumors; colorectal cancer; immunotherapy; follow-up
Interests: gastrointestinal tumors; colorectal cancer; biomarkers
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The success of immunotherapy in various solid tumors has sparked growing interest in its potential for colorectal cancer.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) enhance interactions between T cells, antigen-presenting cells (APCs), and tumor cells, thereby activating suppressed immune responses. Immunotherapy has shown particular efficacy in treating metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficiency (dMMR). This led to the approval of Nivolumab-Ipilimumab and Pembrolizumab for these patients. Clinical trials have also demonstrated high efficacy in locally advanced rectal cancer, with organ preservation emerging as a feasible goal in dMMR cases.
However, for pMMR/MSS colorectal cancer, ICIs have shown limited effectiveness, even in combination with other treatments like targeted therapy, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy.
Given the biological heterogeneity of pMMR/MSS CRC, identifying predictive biomarkers is crucial to determining which patients may benefit from ICIs. Promising biomarkers include immunoscore, tumor mutational burden (TMB), gut microbiome, ctDNA, and POLE/POLD1 mutations, though further research is needed.
This Special Issue will focus on immunotherapy in advanced colorectal cancer, as well as in neoadjuvant and adjuvant settings. It will also explore future strategies for improving patient selection and overcoming resistance through combined therapies and additional biomarkers.
Dr. Alessandro Passardi
Dr. Luca Esposito
Guest Editors
Dr. Chiara Gallio
Guest Editor Assistant
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- colorectal cancer
- immunotherapy
- immune checkpoint inhibitors
- mismatch repair
- microsatellite instability
- biomarkers
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